Alabama’s 50-36 win over Florida State had just about everything crammed into it: a weather delay before kickoff, another stoppage in the middle of the action, a fast Florida State burst, and then an Alabama response that took over the game by the end of the first half and kept rolling after that.
The biggest reason the Crimson Tide walked out of this one in control was Ty Simpson. From the third drive of the afternoon through the final whistle, he was as steady as Alabama could have asked for.
His final line - 23-for-30 for 320 yards, three passing touchdowns, a 199.3 rating, plus 56 rushing yards and another score - tells you plenty. The sequence that really defined his day came late in the first half, when Alabama turned a tight game into a runaway.
Starting at the Florida State 21, Simpson hit Cederian Morgan for the freshman’s first career catch and touchdown. After the lightning delay, Alabama got the ball back about 40 seconds of game time later when the Seminoles went three-and-out.
Then, with 1:37 left in the half, Simpson didn’t need long to strike again. He found Rico Scott for 17 yards to the sideline, then connected with Ryan Coleman-Williams for a 46-yard touchdown.
After another Florida State punt, Simpson got the ball back with 34 seconds left and made the Seminoles pay once more, hitting Lotzeir Brooks for 40 yards before finding Kaleb Edwards for a 16-yard score.
Over those five snaps, Simpson went 5-for-5 for 140 yards and three touchdowns. That stretch was the game in miniature: quick, ruthless, and never out of control. In the second half, he kept Alabama on schedule, avoided mistakes, and never gave Florida State a crack at turning the afternoon into something messier.
The receivers around him made their own noise, too. Brooks posted a career-high 101 yards, and Coleman-Williams added another explosive touchdown.
But Scott may have made the loudest statement of the bunch. His block helped spring Coleman-Williams on that 46-yard score, and his own numbers keep climbing.
Coming into the season, his career high was 37 receiving yards. Now he has gone over 40 in back-to-back games, finished with seven targets, and set a new career best with 48 yards, third on the team behind Brooks and Coleman-Williams.
That matters because Alabama’s receiver room is crowded, and not everybody is going to fill up the box score every week. Scott was the kind of player who, last season, seemed on the verge of transferring. Now he looks like a guy carving out a real role.
Another player who has completely changed the conversation is Conor Talty. He had already started to turn things around after Week 1 against East Carolina, when he made two field goals, but the skepticism still hung around.
After his showing at Kentucky, where he hit all three of his attempts, he backed it up again against Florida State with another perfect 3-for-3 day, including two makes from beyond 40 yards. Talty has now drilled 13 straight field goals dating back to last season.
At this point, a miss would be a surprise.
Not everything in this game was clean, though, and Alabama’s defense learned that the hard way. Through the first two games, the unit had looked untouchable.
Against Florida State, it was a different story, especially early. The Seminoles ripped off three touchdown drives of at least 65 yards in the first 20 minutes, and for stretches of the first half the Crimson Tide defense looked far more vulnerable than anyone expected.
The group settled in some after halftime, but there was still plenty to sort through. The blown coverages, the timeout burned because Alabama had too many men on the field, and Ivan Taylor’s roughing-the-kicker penalty on an FSU punt all showed up as problems that could become much bigger against stronger opponents. Alabama finally has real film to learn from, and it needs to use it.
Third down was the most obvious trouble spot. Florida State converted eight times on third down after Alabama had allowed just one all season.
At one point, the Seminoles were 7-for-9, though the defense tightened up late and held them to 1-for-6 down the stretch. Even so, the breakdowns were more frequent than this group had shown in the first two weeks, and that makes the coming practice week a big one.
On the ground, though, Alabama’s backfield keeps looking better and better. A month ago, the expectation was that the run game would not hit its top gear until Jam Miller returned from injury.
Three games in, that storyline has flipped. Daniel Hill has already piled up 210 yards and three touchdowns, and he has cleared 5.0 yards per carry in every game so far.
He looks like a true lead back.
Freshmen EJ Crowell and Trae’Shawn Brown have scored in every game as well. Brown keeps popping long runs, while Crowell keeps making defenders look foolish, including with the kind of hurdling ability that jumps off the screen. You could make the case that those two are Alabama’s best backs right now, and even if that debate never gets settled, it’s hard to see either of them losing carries anytime soon.
All three backs went over 50 yards against Florida State. The offensive line and tight ends deserve credit, and Simpson’s scrambling helped too.
It was easier to run on this team than it was a year ago, but the production from Hill, Crowell, and Brown is still hard to ignore. Jam Miller is a talented player, but the question now is unavoidable: has he been Wally Pipped?
In Other News...
Alabama's Mike Norvell Near-Miss Looks Even Bigger Now
When Nick Saban announced his retirement in January 2024, Mike Norvell surfaced as a serious name in Alabamas search, with reports indicating he had moved into advanced talks with the Crimson Tides athletic director. In the end, Norvell stayed at Florida State after landing a contract extension, closing what looked at the time like one of the biggest coaching possibilities of the offseason.
Since then, the backdrop in Tallahassee has only grown shakier, with Florida States football fortunes sliding and the programs athletic director recently being fired. For Alabama fans looking back on that search, the near-miss feels more significant now, because the decision to stay put has placed Norvell in a far more uncertain spot than the one he passed up. [Read more 🡒]
Keelon Russell May Have Changed Alabamas Ceiling Faster Than Expected
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For Alabama, the performance was about more than one flashy afternoon. Russell still described himself as a quarterback in development afterward, which is the part that should make the rest of the sport take notice, because if this is where he is while still growing into the job, the ceiling in Tuscaloosa may have moved up faster than anyone expected. [Read more 🡒]
SEC Power Struggles Keep Reshaping The World Around Alabama
Conference disputes have become a defining backdrop for the sport Alabama lives in, with schools and leagues repeatedly testing just how much control each side really has. LSUs effort to add former NFL training camp players to its roster and the SECs response is only the latest reminder that the ground around college football keeps shifting, whether it is a coach suspension in the Big Ten, Florida States lawsuit against the ACC over media rights or Washingtons sanctions from the old Pac-10.
For Alabama, the bigger point is how often these fights reshape the competitive landscape before anyone plays a game. Texas A&Ms move into the SEC came out of frustration with the Big 12, and the pattern is familiar enough now that each new dispute feels like another sign of a sport still working through who has leverage, who gets heard and what happens when schools decide their conference no longer fits the job they want done. [Read more 🡒]